portland explorin'

after i'd charged up my phone, gotten changed into comfy clothes, and repacked all the crap into my suitcase, i was ready to go out and play tourist.  i dropped my bag off with the bell desk, fired up the uber app, and a few minutes later:

i was amused to find that even in oregon, the disney magic was ever-present.

my driver wasn't necessarily as friendly as my first one, but he was willing to chat a little about the city.  apparently there are a lot of bridges here.

i had him drop me off here:

because i really wanted to come here.

inside, i was overwhelmed at the sheer size of the place and the vast shelves of books that i wished i had more time to explore.  and more room in my suitcase.

i'm pretty easily amused.

i picked up a couple of souvenirs - alas, no books, which was rather depressing.  i had to keep it light, because whatever i got i had to be able to carry in my shoulder tote, and it was already fairly weighty.  boo.  oh, well.  gives me a reason to return to portland some day.

based off of my friend nanette's suggestion, i headed off to find the food carts to quiet my growling tummy.  she'd lived in portland for a year or so, and i'd hit her up for ideas as to how to wisely spend my limited sightseeing time.  these food carts - man.  i've done my share of food truck chasing, but these carts were fantastic.  an entire block (and more!) was taken up by these little shacks that served up food from pretty much every place you can think of.

here, too, i found myself totally overwhelmed.  i finally stopped at this one and grabbed a "petit pork hero" - tasty marinated pork topped with a japanese mayo and nori flakes.  yum.

as i stood on the sidewalk and munched on my sandwich, i found waldo.

i made one more stop at "the dump truck" for a dumplings sampler.

after a quick stop at starbucks (where they also served wine, beer and small plates!), i made my way to a cute little cupcake shop just around the corner.  i picked up a few minis to take home to the girls and the hub and carefully placed the box into my tote.

from there, i hit up the first of two donut shops that i'd had in mind since i found out i was coming to portland.  this one was more highly recommended by my friends, and although an outlet of it is coming to l.a., i decided that i'd be better off giving it a try here in its natural habitat.  plus, i figure that when it does open at home, there'll be a whole lotta hype with lines and a long wait to go with it.

with my precious pastries safely tucked away in my bag, i started off on my approximately 10-block trek out to find the other donut shop.  it was a warm, almost record-breaking day, and i was totally sweaty as i made my way through the city.

if you know portland at all, i'm sure you can guess where i was headed:

there were so many different kinds of donuts here, but i had some time to figure it all out as i joined the long line outside.  i pulled up the menu on my phone and picked out a flavor for everyone at home - "grape ape" for me, "arnold palmer" for the hub, "old dirty bastard" (chocolate frosting topped with oreos and a peanut butter drizzle) for the old lady, and "double bubble" for the bean.  plus, i threw in a fruit-loop covered "the loop" for good measure.

über was totally my best friend on this trip.  i used it to take me back to the hotel to grab my bag, and then again to head to the airport for my trip home.  because of an accident on the freeway, it took a little longer to get there, but i'd given myself plenty of time and found myself sitting on a bench with an outlet for charging my phone in front of this cuckoo clock.

kind of dumb, but my itinerary had me flying up to seattle before heading back down to ontario airport.  i don't get it, but whatever.  the first flight was short and sweet, and we landed in seattle in about half an hour.

the flight had been delayed a little, though, so i had just enough time to grab something to eat for the 2.5-hour ride down.  i stopped here and grabbed a dungeness crab grilled cheese sandwich, plus a tub of fresh cheese curds because they sounded really good.

that flight seemed to last forever, and i was so happy when we finally landed.  i'd been gone for just over 24 hours, but i missed my family.  i'm such a sap, i know it.

officially a "disney mom"

my day in portland kicked off nice and early, thanks to my usual inability to get a decent night's sleep when not in the same bed with the hub.  i know, that sounds super lame, but it's true.  every. stinking. time.  it just meant that i didn't actually have to wait for my alarm to go off so that i could get up and head down to the hotel's fitness center.

yes, i sure did open up that mickey suitcase and put on my run disney gear to go and spend some quality time with a treadmill.

it was a pretty nice little setup, complete with pretty much everything you'd want to get in a good hotel workout.

i got to watch local news while i chugged along on my virtual 5K.

somehow, i'm able to keep up a jogging pace for a longer stretch of time on treadmills - but then it takes me forever to get through those 3 miles.  oh, well - super slow time, but it was done.

i'd given myself just enough time to head back to my room and get cleaned up for my disney morning of fun.  i love this dress, by the way, and i can't wait for another excuse to put it on.

registration was easy breezy.  there were a plethora of eager disney moms already in the ballroom, and check-in took all of about a minute.

as i munched on my breakfast, i chatted a bit with the ladies at my table.  they were all local to the area, and all were super friendly and new to the disney SMCC experience, just like me.

our hostess for the morning was jamie langdon, one of the disney parks social media managers.

she introduced tyler slater,  one of their PR guys who works on promoting disney destinations.  i follow him on twitter, and he's always posting these amazing photos from the parks as well as from disney aulani, their property in hawaii.

next up was someone i'm very familiar with - erin glover, the disney parks social media director.  she has the job i would kill for - as she said, if it's posted on any of disney's social media accounts or published on the disney parks blog, she's either seen it or written it.  i always run into her at the disney events i'm lucky enough to attend, and she's such a sweetheart.

she showed us a sample of the gazillions of photos that they get to use.  because they ARE disney, they have access to everything - past, present, and future.  how fun would it be to poke around those archives, huh?

our next speaker was victoria lim, a former journalist who now works with disney social media.  she gave us a great speech on how to create videos using your phone.  i'm not into "vlogging," but i picked up some pretty great tips that i'm sure will come in handy at some point.

the time was literally flying by.  at that point, we were halfway through the conference.  we took a quick break for potty runs and such, and i just kind of sat there and took it all in.

our next speakers were the ladies of babble.com - basically a compilation of bloggers who contribute articles about parenting, relationships, cooking, cleaning, organizing - pretty much everything about everyday life for millions of folks.  they focused on discussing ways to build a brand and grow your audience.

following their lead was author and artist marianne richmond.  this lady found herself undergoing brain surgery to remove a tumor in her 20s, which led to a long hospital stay during which she discovered a talent for art.

she discussed her own ways on how to build a brand and how to "find your brave," as she called it, before doing a quick reading of one of her children's books (which was one of the items in our swag bags).

a mother and daughter blogging team - kathy cano-murillo and maya murillo - served as our last speakers of the day.  they talked about how they grew their blogs from basic websites where they shared crafting tips into major businesses, with a stack of published books, original songwriting, and social media fame with youtube and vine accounts that boast thousands of followers.

and what's a disney conference without an appearance by the boss himself?

i took advantage of the photo ops, because duh.

i managed to catch erin for a few minutes to say hello, chat for a bit and grab a quick selfie.

and i was surprised to run into someone who actually recognized ME - kim is a fellow blogger (hers is much, much nicer than mine and makes me want to hire someone to completely redo this thing and make it all pretty and stuff) who used to be on the knot back when we were all still planning weddings and discussing all things bridal.  it was great to meet her in person, and she's super sweet (and holy cow, super tall!).

the doubletree had granted me a late check-out, which i was grateful for after the intense morning i'd had.  i needed a moment to decompress and unwind for a bit, not to mention take a look at all the swag i'd gotten in that bag.

with a few hours free to go out and explore portland, i pulled myself together, changed my clothes, and packed my suitcase so that i'd be ready to head right to the airport after some sightseeing.

a huge thank you to disney SMCC for not only a fantastic morning of networking and learning and fun souvenirs, but for the awesome quickie solo vacay!